gas prices

this is not a blog complaining about gas prices. i am concerned in the turn that it has taken the last 5 years. when i was in college gas ran around $1.30. i could fill up between $12-15. that would last me almost a month in college. i did not have to drive that much in college. i chose when it was important to drive. i had friends that would drive from one side of the campus to the other because they thought it was easier. i chose to walk. iwu is not that big of a campus and i try not to be that lazy.

today i drive 8.5 each way back and forth to work. i also drive anywhere between 20-100 miles during the work day in which i am reimbursed $.45/mile. we live about 11 miles from our church and about the same from our closest friends in the area. jenny drives about 4 miles to work at the most. overall we drive about 300 miles a week. the overwhelming majority for work/church.

a lot of people are complaining about gas prices. the ones i see complaining most are driving big trucks and suv's. gas is all about choosing what is important and what you can live with or without. america is starting to see there entertainment funds go down.

i remember going over to canada every now and then over the years and noticing that gas always cost quite a bit more. i always wondered about this and today i looked up gas prices around the world. after reading this i was quite thankful for the $3.81/gallon that i paid for this morning.

Belgium $8.84
Canada 4.73
Italy 7.20
Israel 7.30
Turkey 10.13
UK 8.18

but there were also countries that paid hardly anything

venezuela $.17
saudi arabia .45
kuwait .78
iran .33

what is the difference? these countries produce quite a bit of oil. i believe the united states needs to start using our gasoline.

for more gas prices around the world check out these sites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_usage_and_pricing
http://fabulously40.com/article/2171/Price-of-gas-from-around-the-world/